Jimmy looked carefully over to a chair at the edge of the stage where, on his entry, he had deposited his hat and coat despite the invitation of one of his supposed henchmen to hang them in the cloak room. Almost involuntarily he edged closer toward that chair before making his reply, and took time to drink another gla.s.s of water.
"Since that question has been so repeatedly asked, and hitherto, I admit, evaded, I shall now endeavor to make myself completely, plainly, and fully understood on that subject," he said, impressively, and waited until in the silence nothing could be heard save suppressed breathings.
"As I understand it, I am asked what is my personal opinion concerning the expediency and the justice of granting women of majority age the right of franchise in both national as well as state elections. Am I right?"
"That"s it, precisely," came the voice of the woman who had asked the question, and there was a considerable note of triumph in her tone as if at last she had run her fox to earth.
"Then I say," said Jimmy, slowly, and emphatically, "that it is my honest opinion that women should do as their mothers before them did, stay home, work, and raise their families and keep out of politics.
Stop! Stop! Let me say what I have to say! I can"t make myself heard if you hiss and yell!"
Some of them were on their feet. Some of the men applauded. Most of the women hissed; but they slowly settled back to hear him conclude.
"I say that a large majority--a very large majority!--of women don"t know enough about politics to vote, and that a big percentage haven"t brains enough to vote intelligently for a town dog catcher! And that if I had my way any woman who wanted to vote would be arrested and given six months in an imbecile asylum!"
And then, before anyone could surmise his intention, and in the midst of a wild pandemonium of noise he made a jump for his hat and coat, took a flying leap for the cloak room door, jumped through, bolted it on the inside, and like a flash was out in the street. The noise from the court room he had left behind sounded as if a riot had broken loose. There were shouts, screams, yells, and sundry intimations that a certain part of Yimville"s population wanted either his scalp, or to decorate him with tar and feathers. A boy driving a delivery wagon reduced to sleigh runners was pa.s.sing by and Jimmy hastily waylaid him.
"Sonny," he said, "I"m in a hurry to get to the railway station to catch the four-thirty train. I"ve got just five minutes and if you make it for me, you get a five dollar bill."
That boy was a genius of finance. He lost small time in making a decision.
"Hop in, Mister. We"ll make it or have a runaway!"
But short as was the delay, it had given time for the crowd in the court house to fairly heave itself into the street. And foremost in the lot charged a tall, angular woman, screaming to her followers, "Come on!
Come on! Don"t let him get away!"
The boy brought his reins down on the horse"s back with a loud thwack and let out a yell for speed. The horse jumped like a sprinter taking off the tape and it was then that the large angry woman who headed the militant section of the state league, seeing that pursuit was futile, found a pile of bricks conveniently left by some repairer and with rather perfect aim let a chunk fly at the retreating orator. It caught him neatly in its pa.s.sage and although it barely grazed him, nearly knocked him from his seat.
"Wow!" he shouted. "That was a close one!" and then rubbing his scalp, burst into roars of delighted laughter as the mob was left behind. "That woman ought to get out of the bush league and pitch for the New Yorks!
Who said a woman could never throw a brick?"
The boy, intent on earning the five, was on his feet and bending over the dash board exhorting his horse into a run. The improvised sleigh was careening madly as it took corners and an occasional b.u.mp, and in the last glimpse Jimmy had of the court house square it looked as if a hive of human beings had begun to swarm, or else that a nest of hornets had been so badly disturbed that its occupants were undecided whither to direct their stings. He looked hopefully forward as the station came in sight, expecting to see the train standing there panting after its previous run; but no train was in sight He began to speculate on which way he could turn to escape the tempest of wrath he had aroused in case he had missed the train. He doubted if he could induce the boy to take him to the nearest town, and moreover, had no idea of the distance.
Also he doubted if he could escape a mob there, provided the news got through. For once in his life he began to doubt the wisdom of practical jokes.
The boy brought the horse up skating on its heels, by throwing his full weight back on the lines and shouting pacifyingly "Whoa-a-a! Who-oa, Bill!"
Jimmy leaped, out on the platform shouting, "Wait right there, son, till I get some change. I think we"re in time and--anyhow, you get the fiver!"
He ran into the station and, finding the window closed, opened the office door. A placid, disinterested young man wearing an eyeshade, who was sitting with his feet on a window desk and reading a novel, looked up at him and said, "Well?"
"Has that four-thirty train gone through?" demanded Jimmy, anxiously.
"Sixteen? Naw! She"s off the map as far as I know."
Jimmy"s spirits ebbed like mercury in a typhoon.
"And--when will the next train come through?" he asked, striving to speak calmly.
"The next train? That"ll be a freight. It"s due now from Morgan City.
But you won"t go on that?"
"Why?" questioned Jimmy, grasping at straws.
"Two reasons. One that she doesn"t carry pa.s.sengers, and the other that she doesn"t stop here at all. Just whistles up there by the tank, and goes lobbin" along on her way."
"But--but couldn"t you stop her in case of emergency?" asked Jimmy, feeling like a pet.i.tioner.
"Only thing I could stop her for would be on an order from the train despatcher," said the agent, with a grin of sympathy. "I"m not the owner of the line, you know. They don"t thank me for stoppin" heavy freights on an upgrade such as they have to climb to get through here, just to ask "em how the weather is where they come from, or what time it is, or to send a message to the engineer"s beautiful daughter. Guess you"ll have to wait for Number Sixteen, Mister, or, if you"re in too big a hurry, hoof it. It"s only eighteen miles to the next stop. Sorry!"
And then he yawned as if bored, and deliberately resumed his interrupted reading. Jimmy realized that he was knocking on the locked and unbending doors of an inexorable fate, and backed out. He went outside and hailed his rescuer, who had found a piece of gum that he was extricating from some wrappings that indicated a rather dirty pocket.
"Son, my brave youth, how far, I beseech thee, is it to the nearest town from here?" Jimmy asked.
"On a railroad?" queried the boy, biting off the tip end of the stick of gum and testing its flavor.
"Of course. What good is a town that"s not on the railroad?"
"I guess it"s about seven miles to Mountain City up to the north, and about eleven to Hargus. Hargus is down south."
Jimmy thought for a moment and then said, winningly, "And do you think you could drive me with old Bill as far as Mountain City?"
"Not on your life! Me drive you there? Humph! What"s the matter with Jones? He runs a livery stable. I deliver groceries for the Emporium and--say! Mister!--if they find out I drove you down here for that five dollars I ain"t got yet, I"d get fired! Now about that five, did you get change?"
Jimmy appreciated that boy"s business sense and gave him a five dollar bill that caused the young man much glee.
"Now," said Jimmy, cajolingly, "if you were to drive me to Mountain City, and I were to give you ten, and you were to go back to the Emporium with a letter I would write them when we got to Mountain City, a letter that would cause them to pat you on the back and maybe make you a clerk in the store; or if they didn"t do that and fired you, and I was to get you a nice job somewhere in New York, maybe you might find the way to Mountain City, eh?"
The boy suddenly stopped masticating, and looked at him doubtfully.
Jimmy a.s.sumed his most seductive grin, took his wallet from his pocket and exposed several bills, and fingered them with something like a caress.
"I could find the way all right, and I guess the roads could be got across somehow, and I"d like to make that money--Gee! I never had that much in my life! But--somehow it don"t look square to treat the Emporium that way!"
Suddenly Jimmy was aware of a rumbling and roaring and puffing, and saw the expected freight train approaching. It whistled at the tank, true to form, and Jimmy ran across to the edge of the platform as it came panting along, and stared at it wistfully. He wished that he were expert in boarding trains, and then, as it pa.s.sed, decided that it must be traveling at a rate of at least a hundred miles an hour, although it was barely doing fifteen. He made a desperate clutch at the rails of the caboose, felt as if his arm had been jerked from its socket and his heels into the air, and then found himself sitting in the middle of the track with his hat some ten or fifteen feet away and a cooling mixture of snow and cinders up his trousers legs. He got up, felt himself over to learn that he was unbroken, and recovered his hat.
"By gee whiz!" he exclaimed. "Never knew it was so hard to hop aboard one of those things before. Hoboes have it on me all right! My education"s been neglected."
His solicitous friend, the boy, had come to see if there was anything left of him and said, "Hope you ain"t hurted much, Mister? Humph! I could have caught her all right, I bet you! You don"t know how. The minute you catch hold you want to jump. If you wait you can"t do nothin". But I"ll say you did look funny, all right, with your heels and your coat tails and your hat all flyin" at onct!"
"Well, I"m glad I amused you, anyway," said Jimmy, cheerfully. "Now about going to Mountain City, where were we? Oh, yes! The Emporium.
Would you go if I got their consent--for a ten dollar bill you know?"
The boy brightened visibly.
"If you can get old Wade to say I can, you bet I"ll go!" said the boy with marked enthusiasm. "He"s got a "phone, and there"s one in the depot. Ask him!"
Jimmy hastened inside as fast as his stiffness would permit and was starting toward the ticket office to make a request for permission to use the "phone when he happened to glance through the window looking toward the street. An arc light had sprung into being, and--he stopped with a gasp. Down the street was coming a crowd that was evidently in some haste and he recognized its leader. It was a large, bony woman, who strode like a man, and Jimmy thought that she carried something in her hand, something that he surmised might be a selected missile.
"Good Lord!" he breathed. "If she hit me a clip with a little chunk before, what"ll she do with a full-grown brick? Why, it"d be murder I I"ve got to get away from here if I have to steal the horse and kidnap that boy!"
Being quick in decision and swift in enterprise, and adaptable to sudden emergency, he ran back out with great presence of mind and shouted to the boy, "Come on, son! Get a move on you. Mr. Wade says it"s all right and for you to take me as fast as you can. Let"s be off before that crowd gets here looking for the train."